Gas Meter Calibration ?

Hello:
With natural gas for home heating being so expensive now, was wondering a
bit about the calibration
of our gas meter.
a. How well do these things hold calibration ?
b. If they do "drift" some, is there a recognized tendency for them to show
more or less usage ?
c. What's a good rule of thumb regarding how often to request the gas
company to re-calibrate them ? Do they have to honor your request (by Law)
?
Thanks,
Bob

They only fail in the low direction. If it starts reading too low the gas
company will calculate based on typical useage and temperature and send you
the bill. Don't bother calling them. They will just treat you like a
moron.

moron.<<<
, or they will just replace the meter which will work to their advantage,
not yours. RM~
PS, I know from experience, they replaced one of mine which hadn't been
replaced in over 25 years. WOW !

I only use NG for heating, so every April the gas company
replaced my "NR" meter (it's on the door tag). ;-) Since
there was zero use during the previous month, they are
positive it was Non Registering. Then I get to call every
fall to see if they can turn the gas back on.
Finally got wise... now turn it off end of March for the
summer ("summer shunt"), and save $25. $50 total monthly
base fees - $25 turn on fee in November.
Last summer I set up two 55ga barrels to hold washer and
bath water, to run the commode and minor lawn watering. Cut
water use in half, the water dept replaced my meter last
month, just love it...
28 years, 6th gas meter, 4th water meter (one was a pilot
electronic reader program), and same electric meter.
-larry / dallas

Gas pressure usually don't change much unless you get dirt in the valve. A
slight variation won't change performance much. I never heard of anyone
calling them just to have the calibration checked. I'm pretty sure they'd
charge you unless you have a service contract that covers it.

My 'neighbor' works for consumers gas. He waits for the normally
schedualled reading and as soon as the guy has left the driveway, he unbolts
the meter and put it back on backwards. I have actually seen the meter run
in reverse and yes, they do refund you.

I've complained about ridiculously high readings with virtually no
response from the gas company. Waste of time.
John Churchill
Builder and Cont. Ed. Instructor at Emory University
Author of www.renovation101.com

If your gas valve pressure is correct and put a timer on the furnace, you
should be able to come close with a little math. A cubit foot of natural gas
is about 1,024 BTUs. If you have an 80,000BTUH input furnace, and it runs
for one hour, divide that by 1024 to get the cubic feet.

I think we have that now, but they have to drive down the street -- I
thought -- to read the electric meters. ( OTOH, maybe that was 10
years ago. If the cable company can tell when one customer buys pay
per view, maybe the electric company can tell what I'm using without
driving down the street??????)
Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.

A long time ago, my electric meter reader would walk over and write down the
reading. Then they started just pulling into the driveway and scanning the
meter from the vehicle. Now they don't even come around. The meter sends a
signal through the power lines, back to their HQ 20 miles away.
wrote:

and installed electronic meters that send the usage right back to the
main office. Then they laid off all the meter reader <<<
My gas meter which is in the back yard has a transmitter on it that the
meter reader can read from the street in front of house. The transmitter was
installed about 25 years ago because we had a Chow dog at the time that
hated meter readers. The dog passed away soon after the transmitter was
installed but they still read the meter from the street. Guess they are
afraid we will replace the Chow with a Pit Bull. RM~
PS, don't know what powers the transmitter, don't see any solar cells and as
far as I know they haven't changed anything since it was installed.

I don' know about all states, but we have gas at work. We got a notice
that the meter would be replaced as required by law after 10 years. This is
an industrial meter but check local regulations. Chances are, you utility
has a web page with all the information you need.

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